KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Two airplane catastrophes put Malaysia on the map in a bad way in 2014. But they didn't hurt the country's tourism, and the higher visibility may even have helped: visitor numbers had their strongest growth in years.

For the past decade, Malaysia has run an elaborate campaign to market itself abroad as an ideal Asian destination, touting a multiethnic culture, lush rainforests and pristine beaches. Despite the effort to internationalize, its tourism industry still relies heavily on tightly-packed neighboring Singapore and in a renewed push the government had designated 2014 as "Visit Malaysia Year."

So when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, it put the global spotlight on Malaysia and seemingly dealt a blow to its tourism strategy. A double whammy came four months later when a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

The two inflight catastrophes did not hurt Malaysian tourism, but may have actually helped. More of the traveling public knows of Malaysia today and many most likely would not have knowingly ticketed or flown on either carrier.

Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful and modern city, and yes, Malaysia overall is a beautiful country to visit. So far we have visited Kuala Lumpur, up the Petronas Towers, double decker brigde on the 41/42nd floor, plus their new observation deck on the 86th floor, speaking of going "up", we loved the KL Tower too, all worth one or more visits, Johor Bahru which is just accross the strait, north of Singapore, Miri, the Oil City in Sarawak incl. the Grand Old Lady, the first Oil well in Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, beautiful city mosque and Sabah museum. Looking foward into our future to explore more of this beautiful and diverse country. While on Borneo we also visited Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, plus Seria for the Billionth barrel monument overlooking the sea. Thanks for the Batu Caves recommendation. Cheers.

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